Central Ohio was terrorized on Aug. 15, 1970, when bombs fashioned from 96 half-pound sticks of
dynamite and five Mickey Mouse alarm clocks were placed in stores, under a bridge and on a car.

Although two bombs exploded, wounding 13 people, Air Force Lt. William L. Harris — who placed
the bombs as a diversion to rob stores — was captured before the other three could go off.

The first went off about 7 p.m., at the JCPenney store at Town and Country Shopping Center in
Whitehall, and it was powerful enough to knock a hole in the wall between the department store and
a neighboring liquor store. Eight people were wounded in the attack.

Twenty minutes later, a bomb exploded in another Whitehall business, the Zayre Department Store
on E. Main Street, wounding five people, two seriously.

Vietnam veteran Roger Penwell ran Harris down in the store’s parking lot with a motorcycle as
Harris fled, gun blazing, from a botched robbery attempt. Harris told Whitehall police where the
other three bombs were.

Columbus Fire inspectors John O’Keefe and James Hall disarmed a 16-stick dynamite bomb outside a
Topps Store on E. Livingston Avenue that was set to go off at 8:30 p.m. A loose wire stopped a
30-stick bomb under an I-70 bridge near Parsons Avenue from detonating at 9 p.m.

O’Keefe and Hall disarmed the last bomb — 16 sticks of dynamite under a car at Dick Masheter
Ford on E. Main Street — just before it was set to go off at 10 p.m. “Seconds after the wires on
the bomb were disconnected, the alarm clock began to ring in O’Keefe’s hand,”
The Dispatch reported.

Penwell, 22, was awarded a Carnegie Hero Fund bronze medal in 1971 for his bravery. Harris
pleaded guilty to bombing the department stores and was sentenced to 12 to 65 years.

Suggestions for Mileposts that will run this bicentennial year can be sent to: Gerald Tebben,
Box 82125, Columbus, OH 43202, or email
gtebben@columbus.rr.com.